Why Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith Do Not Have a Prenup Despite 7-Year Separation

Jada Pinkett Smith is dishing on why she and Will Smith never felt it was necessary to sign a prenuptial agreement before getting married on New Year’s Eve 1997.

In a Q&A with Parade — and ahead of her interview with Hoda Kotb airing in full Friday night on NBC — Jada shared the reason behind not getting a prenup while promoting her new memoir, Worthy, out on Tuesday. The actress, who previously dropped the bombshell that she and Will have been separated for seven years, says not having a prenup gave them a special connection, and ultimately it all boiled down to them forming a pact that divorce would never be necessary.

“Listen, weddings are beautiful, but they can be very romanticized,” she explained. “I feel that was a very real moment for the two of us to look each other in the eyes, recognize that there would be tough times in this journey and to say to each other, ‘No matter what, we’re going to figure it out and that’s why we don’t need a prenup, because I’m making a promise that divorce won’t be necessary, that we will figure this out.'”

“And we made that promise to each other without all of the bridal wedding beauty,” she continued. “It was just sitting on a log in his mother’s backyard, and going, ‘Hey.’ Having to really look at the possibility of us not being together.” 

In a sneak preview of her full interview, Jada shared with Kotb that she and Will, 55, have been leading “completely separate lives” since 2016, even though they never officially divorced.

Jada had also shared that, prior to Will slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards and shouting “keep my wife’s name out your f**king mouth” (after Chris made a G.I. Jane 2 joke at Jada’s expense), Will hadn’t referred to her as his wife in some time.

“First of all, I’m really shocked because, mind you, I’m not there — we haven’t called each other husband and wife in a long time,” she said. “I’m like, ‘What is going on right now?'” 

Jada also said Chris tried apologizing to her that night during a commercial break.

“Chris came down to the end of the stage and tried to apologize to me,” Jada shared. “He said, ‘I didn’t mean you any harm.’ I said, ‘I can’t talk about this now, Chris. This is some old s**t.’ I thought this was [about] the Oscar 2016 and … their stuff that they had before I even came into the picture in the late ’80s. I’ve got to leave that to Will and Chris to talk about, but they got their stuff for sure.”

Still, Jada and Chris haven’t spoken since that tumultuous night.

“[Do I have] any desire to talk to Chris? Here’s my desire: I just hope that all the misunderstanding around this can be cleared up and that there can be peace,” she added.

Jada’s Story – An NBC News Special airs Friday, Oct. 13 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.

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